Rabbi Levin's BIO

Article written in 2008 by History News Network

Yehuda Levin, is a native New Yorker who is perhaps the best known Orthodox Rabbi in the Western world. He has been a special representative of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and is a prominent figure in the Rabbinical Alliance of America, which has a membership of 1,200 rabbis and represents the views of more than 2 million Orthodox and traditional Jews all across the globe. He is often on television and radio, is a prolific writer, contributes regularly to his own website (RabbiLevin.com), and for a quarter of a century has been addressing the annual March For Life in Washington. (The event this year had an estimated 134,000 participants and was largely ignored by the major media.) Levin is known for his courage, optimism, and unflagging commitment to traditional Judeo-Christian moral values. Like his friend Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, Rabbi Levin is someone a great many people on the Left detest.
Levin has been especially active in the pro-life movement, working frequently with Roman Catholics. In the 1980s he defended John Cardinal O’Connor when the cleric was criticized for drawing a parallel between abortion and the Holocaust. He met with Pope John Paul II and defended the Vatican in 2000 against a campaign by secularists to cripple the Holy See’s observer status at the United Nations. Levin greatly admires Pope Benedict XVI, noting his traditional teaching on the most controversial issues. The Rabbi desires to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s largest Christian church to take back “the naked public square from corrupt politicians.” As he told the National Catholic Register, he and Catholic leaders “talk about what is our common business: to preserve God’s family values against abortion, homosexuality, Internet pornography and merry-go-around, no-fault divorce. These are the things we need to unite around and take to the streets on—to bring out the faithful.”

Most Jews in the United States are more or less secular. But Levin wants it known that Conservative Judaism is of the same stripe. When this branch of Judaism recently embraced homosexual clergy and homosexual marriage, Levin likened it to Catholics for a Free Choice. “That’s just paganism and apostasy, and the outrage of it all is that it’s in the name of a religion. So it has become very clear to many people that it is a pagan agenda.” The Rabbi does not mince words when serious principles are involved.

Few Levin activities have enraged the Left more than his drive to stop a homosexual parade in Jerusalem last year. Michelle Norris of National Public Radio was aghast at such “intolerance,” and a wide range gays and lesbians expressed their anger on the Internet. (E.g,www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1816html. One is referred to this website by an article on Levin in Wikipedia, an often left-leaning source of information.)

Still, Levin is not dissatisfied with the recent elections that gave Democrats control of Congress. The GOP had the White House and Congress for six years, he states, and delivered only “lip service” when it came to family and life issues. Republicans, he believes, needed to be learn that their inaction had consequences.

But now it is time, Levin says, to regain the political momentum and build authentic conservative and moral strength in Washington. He promises an all-out effort to win the battle. “Jews, Christians and all good people of faith are under attack, and yet many don’t even recognize it, and if they do, they make needless concessions in order to get along. I don’t believe in cowering before the secular establishment, but standing up for my moral beliefs and asking people who share them to join me.”